Call Sign Systems

Vanity

The FCC offers amateur radio licensees the opportunity to request a specific call sign for a primary station and for a club station. A vanity call sign is selected by the FCC from a list of call signs requested by the station licensee or the club station license trustee. Military recreation stations are not eligible for a vanity call sign. Also refer to the many frequently asked questions about vanity call signs.

Also refer to the many frequently asked questions about vanity call signs.

Obtaining Vanity Call Signs

You can obtain a vanity call sign using either the Universal Licensing System or FCC Form 605 Schedule D and FCC Form 159. The fee for a vanity call sign is reviewed annually as part of the Commission's regulatory fee structure. For the current fee amount, please refer to the
Wireless Fee Filing Guide, FCC Form 1070Y, or phone the FCC's Consumer Center toll free 1-888-225-5322. Payment is accepted by check (payable to "FCC"), bank draft, money order or credit card. DO NOT SEND CASH.

There are up to three different request types for requesting vanity call signs, depending on whether the call sign is to apply to a primary or a club station. The requestor may list up to twenty-five call signs in order of preference. The exact prefix, numeral, and suffix must be given for each call sign. Requests stated in general terms such as, "Any call sign with my initials" or "Any call sign having the prefix (or suffix)______" will be dismissed. The first assignable call sign on the list for which the requestor is eligible will be shown on the license grant for the requestor's station and the original call sign will be vacated.

Objections to the assignment of call signs requested by another licensee or a club station trustee will not be entertained at the FCC. However, this does not hamper any party from asserting such rights as it may have under private law in some other forum. The FCC does not consider an individual to be a former holder where the call sign was originally obtained through bribery, fraud, favoritism or other improper means. A club station trustee of a club that has been assigned a vanity call sign is not eligible to apply for any additional vanity call signs.

Call Sign Availability

A call sign is normally assignable two years following license expiration, surrender, revocation, set aside, cancellation, void ab initio, or death of the grantee. Where a vanity call sign for which the most recent recipient was ineligible is surrendered, cancelled, revoked or voided, the call sign is not assignable for 30 days following the date such action is taken, or for the period for which the call sign would not have been available to the vanity call sign system pursuant to Section 97.19(c)(2) or (3) but for the intervening grant to the ineligible applicant, whichever is later. Refer to the Sequential Call Sign System for how call signs are sequentially assigned and the grouping and geographic region attributes of each call sign.

General Rules

You must hold an unexpired amateur operator/primary station license grant of the proper operator class, as described below, to request a vanity call sign for your primary station.

To request a vanity call sign for a club station, you must also hold an unexpired club station license grant listing you as the license trustee.

Your name and mailing address as shown on your current license grant must be correct.

If your license grant has expired you must first renew the license. After the renewal of your license is granted, you may file a vanity call sign request. You can change your name or address at the time of your vanity call sign request, by filing FCC Form 605.

The call sign you are requesting may not already be assigned. Refer to the
Universal Licensing System License Search for verification.

The license of the former holder now deceased must show a status of expired or cancelled in the licensee database. See Section 97.31(a). This is accomplished by submitting a request that includes a death certificate or obituary that shows the person named in the operator/primary station license grant has died. Such a request may be submitted as a pleading associated with the deceased licensee's license and sent to:
FCC
1270 Fairfield Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325-7245

In addition, the Commission may cancel a call sign if it becomes aware of the grantee's death through other means. No action will be taken during the last thirty days of the post-expiration grace period on a request to cancel a call sign due to the grantee's death.

The information for cancellation of a call sign must be submitted prior to filing the vanity application.